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No matter what you do for your customers, it likely pales in comparison to Haidilao, the Sichuan hot pot chain. They take the customer experience to a whole new level. That is unless you’re offering customers free manicures, car washes or massages while waiting.

Haidilao has grown to 370 locations across China, with a few outposts abroad, and has built a brand associated with over-the-top customer service that extends well beyond traditional restaurant offerings. Cue the manicures, car washes, chair massages, shoe shines, and more.

But if the idea of having your nails primped while waiting for a seat at a restaurant sounds strange, you have to admit this unique approach to offering an array of value-added services to the customer experience marks a stark shift for successful brands. To meet customer expectations, you need to exceed them.

The main point every brand should know is this: the service and brand you build around a loyal community of customers (or diners) is not only a viable growth strategy but one that will become increasingly important even at greater cost.

Word of mouth for expansion

When Haidilao was first opened by Zhang Yong, a former factory worker, he admitted that the quality of his product alone wouldn’t be enough to build a loyal fanbase. Call it self-deprecating or call it honest: a lot of brands aren’t offering something new. Hotpot is one of the most popular culinary experiences in China. Another hot pot chain offering the same sort of experience wasn’t going to flourish in a saturated market.

Rather than funneling money into traditional advertising efforts, Yong focused his margins on adding value for the customer. In China, this comes in the form of complimentary manicures, chair massages, shoe shines, and even car washes. Are any of these services related to enjoying a meal? No. Do they impact a customer’s willingness to return? Apparently, yes.

Chains build consistency with a predictable menu, a similar restaurant layout, and other branding elements that assure patrons they’re in for a familiarity. Haidilao’s take brings a fresh perspective: they give their employees reasons to go above and beyond for service.

And with 60,000 plus employees, Haidilao has well surpassed the enterprise mark.

"Putting faith in my staff has paid off for me. Giving them responsibility and autonomy is how you show trust," Yong said of his management philosophy to Forbes last month. Haidilao only promotes from within. Each individual employee has a vested interest in going above and beyond for the customer because it will reflect in their career growth.

This might not seem radical, but when you consider the customer’s loyalty to the brand and the rapid expansion the brand has seen, the smartest thing Yong could have done was to empower employees to take ownership of the customer experience. Enabling your front line with incentives to succeed is critical for creating a good brand impression.

There are aspects of your brand you can largely control. Then there’s the most important part: how your customer interacts with other people affiliated with your brand.

A bad customer experience can easily originate from a discourteous interaction with an employee, and in turn, damage your brand’s reputation. But at Haidilao, they’ve shifted the paradigm.

Directly address customer concerns with action

Haidilao’s rise to success has not been without hiccups. Food safety problems can destroy the reputation of a restaurant. Without stringent action, health concerns can terminate a chain’s success. When food safety issues occurred, Haidilao did not sweep them under the rug as isolated incidents, nor did they make empty promises to improve food safety.

These concerns arose with the customer, so naturally, to satisfy concerns, Haidilao provided better transparency for customers to make sure no problems would arise in the future. After overhauling food safety across all restaurants, they provided live-stream footage of the kitchen that customers can watch while waiting or eating.

Time to shine (shoes)?

Don’t go out and purchase a massage chair for your coffee shop. Or do. The point that Haidilao makes isn’t a new one, but in the drive for efficiency and increased margins, is often forgotten. Brand loyalty needs to be earned. If your customers aren’t receiving top-notch service from your brand, you stand to lose them to a competitor who does the same exact thing as you, but for cheaper.

Rather than ask yourself: How do I get people to stay in my store/on my website longer, ask yourself why? Why would that person want to be there? Why should they choose you instead of Amazon?

Maybe you’ll arrive at the same conclusion Zhang Yong did: that kindness matters, and that when someone passes through your doors, they will surely have a reason to return.